


A Far Distant Sunset

by CyclonicJet



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2019-07-20
Packaged: 2020-07-08 21:16:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19876219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CyclonicJet/pseuds/CyclonicJet
Summary: I struggled over this for a good long time. There are parts I really like, and parts I'm not overly keen on. But it is done nonetheless. Some aspects are really well written, other not so much. But that's all part of the development process. I have to write to get better at making it something I enjoy throughout. But I hope you enjoyed it! It's been an idea swimming around my head ever since I read Fire and Blood, and I'm glad to finally have it committed down here.





	A Far Distant Sunset

Elissa stared out longingly upon the water, a hard knot lodged deep in her chest. But this was not an unpleasant knot to be possessed of, far from it in fact. For it was a knot born of wonder and delight. The ocean stretched out before her, a grand matinee of blue, reaching long away unto the distant horizon. The boat beneath her bobbed peacefully upon tranquil waves, while the orange drenched sky slowly bled itself out into the sea. 

The knot tightened as the sun finally settled itself down upon the ocean, nestled gently atop the blood soaked blue. The glow of the setting sun reflected in her eyes, casting within them a brilliant gleam, such that they almost seemed to glisten. Her heart was aflutter, pounding loudly in her chest, it was as swift as a sparrow, and as tender as that of a child's first love. She could feel the blood pulsing beneath her cheeks. Never had she felt like this. Not even the warm embrace of courtship could compare.

An inexorable joy had seized itself upon her, binding her in its own wondrous delights. “I’m doing it.” she whispered to herself. “I’m actually doing it!” 

None had ever chased the sun this far west. She would be the first to follow it beyond the edge of the world, to find where it hid when the cloak of night drew itself tight. But despite her desire to travel into the unknown, to satiate her insatiable urge to chase the sun beyond the horizon, she still was bitterly bound by the failings of reality. No matter how hard she pushed, her sails would never keep up with the great speed of the sun. Always was it's swift flight across the sky too fast by half for her. Always did the cold embrace of night fall far too quickly.

She gazed upon the setting sun now, with hope that the next day would bring her unto the end that she had so long sought. The great disc of light that was the sun seemed to halt for a moment in its decent, balancing itself upon the wide horizon, like an egg held on the edge of a knife. It sat trapped between the darkening sky above, and orange flushed sea below. But soon enough the moment passed, and once again the sun dipped its way down into the ocean, draining the waters of all there colour, and dying the the sea an inky black in its place.

As the warmth faded, and the night settled in, a cold wind picked up before her, bracing itself upon her face, and whipping loudly at her coat tails. She suddenly found herself breathing flecks of salt water as the wind drove the sea spray high off the quickly developing surf. She coughed and sputtered as the seawater trickled its way down her throat. 

The boat rocked as the canvas became caught in the harshening wind. She watched in horror as her own sails turned against her. A cold dread seized at her heart, and the knot inside her twisted itself into a new shape. One of grotesque terror. Slowly but surely the boat began to turn, turning aside from the horizon, fleeing the distant sunset and travelling away from it, back towards the world she knew, and the lands she had worked so hard to escape. As the ship jostled its way around, she could feel her dreams of verdant green lands under strange stars slipping away from her.

“No!” she stammered. “No! No! No! No!” She raced hurriedly across the deck, moving from prow to helm in what felt like but an instant. She seized herself upon the great steering wheel, wrenching at it in a desperate attempt to correct her prevailing course. But try as she might to budge it, the wheel refused to obey her, it was now slave to forces far beyond her control. The ship was now clearly possessed of its own wanton desires now, and she would only listen to her wailing mistress that was the wind, who whispered loudly into her ear which way she should go.

The tapestry of twinkling stars above began to quickly wink out one by one, as though a great curtain was being drawn across them. Only when at last did the final light blink out, did the drawn cloak reveal its true nature. A droplet of water struck her on the forehead, then another fell upon her chest, then upon her arm. Soon enough they were joined by a veritable torrent of their brothers, as a thick and heavy sheet of rainwater struck down fiercely upon her.

The sky was lit ablaze with great ribbons of forked lightning, which flickered in wide arcs across the darkness above. The calamitous din of thunder rolled in close on its heels. The wheel suddenly wretched itself free of her grip, as though some invisible spectre had struck her aside with an iron fist and claimed the helm for itself. “Ack!” she cried as the ship rocked violently beneath her. Waves the size of the ship itself were lapping over the sides, looking to drown the wanton vessel. An all mighty shudder resonated up from the deepest parts of the hull, the unmistakable reverberations of a reef collision. Stumbling to the edge she gazed down into the pitch black void below, and suffered a terror so fierce it was a wonder that it did not strike her dead there and then. For gazing back up at her, reflected in the glow of the magnificent light show above, was a single great eye.

* * *

The fear that had wrapped itself around her heart overwhelmed her. She fell backward onto the deck, dread clutching at her as a sickly grey tentacle slithered up before her. It wound its way up past her, higher and higher it rose, reaching all the way into the rigging and onto the mast. Something slimy suddenly rugged at her back, turning she found a second withered appendage groping at her. She lost control of herself. She screamed with a mixture of revulsion and horror. She went for her sword but found it was missing.

Instead batted uselessly with her hands at the overgrown worm of a tentacle, a desperate and feeble attempt to free herself. But it proved no use as the kraken wrapped its arm around her and hefted her up off the deck. As she was pulled into the air she heard the noisy groaning of the boat as the great beast began to tug it downward into the abyss.

The boat whined ever louder as it sank ever deeper into the water. A sound like grinding icebergs echoed up from the kraken below. Elissa screamed again in terror as she was hoisted towards the side of the ship, but she knew it was pointless. No one was coming to rescue her, this was it, this was the end.

An unearthly wail suddenly emanated raucously from the leviathan, and its grip around her relaxed. She fell to the deck with a painful thump, leaving her dazed and disoriented. Beneath her she could feel the ship relaxing as the monstrosity released it. She watched as the long arms of the beast slipped back down beneath the tumultuous waves. Then the prow of the ship began to rise as the water before it swelled up and split apart. Out of the sundered sea rose a giant of a man, a titan whose skin was iron, and was possessed of a voice that could drown out the storm. He bellowed so loud that Elissa was forced to clamp her ears shut for fear they would burst. 

The colossus rose high out of the ocean, and in his eyes she could see fires were ablaze where his pupils should have lain. In one hand he bore a mighty bronze sword, its end stuck deep into the writhing kraken, skewering it whole. In the other he clutched three mighty stones. Ornate and beautiful, they shone in raiments of gold, bronze, and ruby. The titan bellowed its fury again, lifting the squirming squid high above him. With an almighty swing he launched it from the end of his blade. It tumbled through the air, a twisting mass of squirming tentacles, before plunging into the sea, where hungry waves soon devoured it whole.

Elissa found herself cowering before the titan. She hid herself like a mouse might hide from a lion. But when she finally steeled herself, and turned her gaze upward upon it she was awed. The hulking monolith of a man gazed down upon her, his fiery eyes piercing through her. Then with a final epic roar the Titan turned and began to walk away, each stride taking him further away into the storm. Elissa moved to the helm and gripped on to it for dear life as she watched him depart. He descended into the ocean, returning to the depths from whence he had come. But as his head plunged beneath the surface, and the flaming pupils touched the water, a great wall of steam erupted forth. The cloud of boiled water rolled back towards her in long trails, and soon formed itself into a rolling mist that poured itself towards the ship, curling up around its sides and spilling out onto the deck in a thickening fog. 

The clamouring waves began to spit and hiss angrily too, as if the ocean was drawn thin atop a bed of baking coals. It produced ever more steam that rose angrily and struck painfully at her lungs. Elissa soon found herself struggling to breath as the thickening cloud of vapour invaded her throat. She abandoned the wheel and began seeking the hatch that led below the deck. She squinted as she searched, groping around desperately for the latch, but she was utterly blind in the pitch white fog. 

As she slowly probed her way forward, the ship suddenly bucked high into the air beneath her. Her feet were sent clean off the deck and she went flying into the air. She was so startled she didn't even notice that when the world pulled her back down, the deck failed to greet her. Instead she kept falling, down through thick white smoke, slowly suffocating her in its thrall. A darkness crept upon her, she fought against the encroaching shadows but was powerless to stop them. soon enough they took her, and suffocated her within them.

* * *

Her eyes fluttered open to find the last few twinkling stars of a fast approaching dawn staring down upon her. But still her stomach felt like it was wrapped in worse knots then ever, a sensation like that of falling was furiously churning away at her innards. As she tried to make sense of what was happening, she became acutely aware of the rushing wind blustering past her.

She was falling! This was no feeling at all! But that was impossible. She had just been aboard her ship. She turned herself over and the knots inside her all unspun at once. Below her, drifting lazily through the sky, were great fluffy clouds coloured a sunshine yellow as the first few paltry beams of sunlight broke the eastern horizon. “What!?” she yelled loudly.

A red shadow streaked past her, plunging down towards the clouds below. It flew into the white wall and vanished inside its folds. She followed fast behind it, ploughing into the wall of cotton herself. She was blinded again as she fell through the blanket of white. The sounds of dragons roaring echoed dully through the cotton sheets. They sounded like they were everywhere, surrounding her on all sides. Occasionally she would glimpse the shadow of one, darting around, just out of sight, perpetually veiled by the shifting columns of white. One of the shadows passed beneath her, a mighty jet of flame bellowing forth from it, though the fire was quickly consumed by the clouds.

Before she could make sense of it, the shadow vanished. Then she promptly burst free of the clouds. Beneath her, stretched out in all its majesty, was the God’s Eye. Her breath caught at the beauty, and her heart seized in fear. At its centre she could see the isle of faces, but it did not appear to be made of stone, but instead it was crafted of chalk white wood. She wasn’t sure how, but she could somehow sense the many ancient weirwood faces of the island gazing up at her.

An almighty roar grabbed her attention. She looked down directly beneath her to see a monstrous red dragon locking its jaws around the neck of another even larger beast. She knew the dragon the red beast was grappling with. It was Vhagar! She watched as a man she did not know leapt from the red creature, and slayed another man she did not know riding astride Vhagar. But in the fervour of their battle, neither had noticed the on rushing lake. It had drawn close now. Far too close for either dragon to pull up!

The two gargantuan creatures crashed into the lake, sprouting in there wake a colossal geyser that stretched high above the water. It reached long into the sky, so high even it even ensnared Elissa herself. It sucked her down, drawing her quickly down below the churning and boiling surface of the lake. Water poured down her throat in great torrents. Around her she could hear the screams of the two mighty beasts dying, making an especially loud raucousness in there death throes. Her vision flickered. A darkness pressed itself down upon her. She scrambled madly to try and reach the surface, but it was receding away quickly from her. This was it. This was how she died.

Lights began to shimmer before her, bright and orange they were. Shifting, changing, as unpredictable as the surf of the sea. They danced before her, seemingly just out of reach. She reached for them anyway, and her hand broke the surface of the water. Her eyes widened. She was closer to the surface then she had thought! She quickly dragged the rest of herself upward.

* * *

She broke free of the water. A bone crushing cough left her as water erupted free of her mouth in a great gout. As the liquid poured free, the harsh sting of the air replaced it, filling her lungs like sweet nectar once more. She gulped it down greedily, savouring every breath as though she had never once before enjoyed the privilege of doing so. It was only once her appetite for air was satiated did she become aware of what was going on around her.

Before her lay a thick wall of monstrously hot flames. Like so many serpents, they had wrapped themselves around the walls of a magnificent palace, wreathing it in a crown of scarlet flames. Roaring fire spilled like dragon breath from every window and doorway it could find. Great tongues leapt away from the inferno, lapping fiercely at the blackened tapestry that was the sky above, while great tendrils also wound their way down towards the water.

The screams of far distant strangers echoed across the water to her. Figures, silhouetted in the flames, ran in every direction away from the blaze. But there plight was nothing compared to the chorus of blisteringly painful screeches emanating from the palace itself. A series of wails called out from the heart of the inferno itself. The sound was unmistakable. It was the wailing's of newborn dragons. Hatchlings bursting free of their shells.

At their shrieks, the fire itself twisted. The chaos of the blaze mutated as the hatchlings cried ever louder. From both sides of the palace, two great wings of fire erupted. Then a head, borne upon a long neck, tore its way free of the roof. It was a dragon of living fire. It bellowed furiously into the night, loosing a jet of emerald flame from its maw. The building suddenly exploded in a great shower of stone as the great dragon beat its wings down hard. It lifted itself free of the collapsing palace and took to the air, only to falter as its wings began to disintegrate away from it. It screeched, a noise so horrendous it made Elissa want to crawl out of her own skin.

The creature again tried to beat down with its wings, but could no longer keep itself aloft. Its once mighty wings were withering away to ash with each beat it took. It fell from the sky. And down upon the lake. Onto Elissa. The world quite abruptly went from yellow to white, before finally everything went black.

* * *

Her eyes again winked themselves open. Once again the tapestry of the stars lay above her, bright and twinkling. Framing the night sky were tall blades of grass, shooting up all around her. She could feel many of them cushioning her back from below. She groaned to herself. With great effort she lurched herself back up onto her feet and looked around. She was alone. The great grass sea she found herself in stretched to the horizon in every direction. Only the chirp of insects hidden in the undergrowth offered her company. The night was still and silent. Only the bravest and barest of winds dared to blow across the great plains. Elissa took a few tentative steps forward. Where was happening to her? What was all this?

“East…” whispered a voice on the wind. She turned around startled but no one was there. “Up…” whispered the voice again. Elissa span in a circle, fear gripping at her. Was she going mad? What was happening!? The sky suddenly brightened above her, drawing her attention to it. One of the many stars above had detached itself from its kin, and was falling away from them, tumbling down out of the heavens. Behind it a long ruby tail grew, searing itself against the sky. 

Elissa observed in amazement as it plummeted down towards the earth, and then watched as it fell beyond the far horizon and disappeared. From where the star had vanished a great light blossomed forth, a light as bright as the rising sun. Elissa covered her eyes, a meek shield against the blinding brilliance. When she opened them again she found herself now stood on the precipice of a vast crater. A burning star of stone lay at its heart. Still smouldering and fresh. Then a great crack split it down the seam, followed by another, and another. Then with a mighty roar a dragon bearing three heads emerged forth from the stone. With a head of gold, a head of green, and a head of black.

It clambered free of its shell and stumbled onto the scorched earth. It nipped at the air as though to taste it. Then with spectacular grace the creature unfurled and spread its fledgling wings. It made a hard kick off the ground, and took to the air. It rose fast into the sky, soaring off towards the east. Beneath the creature, a trail of withered and burnt stalks would blossom wherever the beasts shadow fell. She watched as it dwindled further and further away, before eventually merging with the vast eastern horizon itself. A distant roar echoed back to her from across the plains, and then silence reigned once more.

“Behind…” whispered the wind. A puff of hot air wafted across her back. With great trepidation Elissa turned around. The great three headed dragon stood before her. Watching her. Each head judging her in turn. The dragon was now full grown. So large even as to rival, if not wholly out scale even Balerion himself. After a breathless moment the largest of them, the black head, decided her worth. It lowered itself and offered her purchase.

Elissa had only limited experience with dragons, but she knew better than to refuse one lest you wound its pride. So with great hesitation, she climbed atop the dragon's neck. Barely had she taken her seat then did the beast take wing. It launched itself swiftly westward. Travelling over the vast grass seas that stretched for countless leagues below, a withered firestorm fell in tow behind them. A trail of devastation writ into the charnel ruins of the grassland, and any creature unfortunate enough to pass beneath them.

All night did they fly. And when at last the dawn broke, so to did the land. The narrow sea stretched thin and short before them, and no sooner had they begun to cross, then did the shores of Westeros come into view. The dragon soared high over King’s Landing, the city withering into decayed ruins beneath the dragon's mighty shadow. They flew onward to Highgarden, leaving a corpse garden in there wake. Oldtown appeared and Elissa gazed down upon it, watching as a monstrous leviathan reached up out of the water, and dragged the city stone by stone into the sea. Then they were past this too and out above open ocean again. By the time the shores of Westeros faded away behind them, the night was settling in once more.

Another full night was spent on the wing and Elissa began to wonder where this journey might yet end. As the dawn broke, she spied three small islands far below. Moored in the lagoon of the largest island sat a ship so beautiful and magnificent Elissa had no words to describe it. Its sails glistened in the new dawned sun, and all about it the water dazzled. But before she could ogle the wondrous ship any longer, the dragon swept them on past the island and out back unto trackless waters. The day passed. Only endless sea met them.

Then, as the sun sauntered towards the horizon, a line broke the once unbroken blue horizon. As they drew closer it resolved itself, taking on the shape of land. It was vast. The coast stretching beyond her furthest vision in either direction. Was this it!? The land she had spent her life dreaming about!? The dragon angled itself it down towards it and soared low over the pristine beaches, over the tops of verdant fields of wildflowers, and across a land more beautiful then Elissa could have ever fathomed. The dragon drew its wings in and flared them wildly to slow itself down. Picking an especially wondrous hillock, the great beast alighted down upon it.

The mighty black head lowered itself and offered Elissa the chance to actually touch the land itself. She could barely contain her joy. She slipped her feet off the side of the dragon and dangled them mere inches above the grass. Then with a thrust she launched herself to the ground. Her feet touched the soil, and everything went black.

* * *

Elissa awoke with a start. She launched herself bolt upright in the bed, her fingers clawing at the sheets, drawing them up into bundles in her hands. Her heart pounded furiously. Her breath was swift and wheezy. Her head still swam with vivid visions of her dream. Beside her she felt Rhaena shift, but she did not stir. What had just happened!? That had been no ordinary dream. Never could she have conjured such strange and bizarre flights of fancy by herself. They were just too weird. But what did it mean? Did it even mean anything at all?

Her head began to throb under the strain of thinking. She rose from the silken sheets and wandered to the great window over viewing the island beyond. Dragonstone, the great ancestral home of house Targaryen. But Elissa was no more than a guest here, and right now she felt more like a prisoner. She gulped in the night air and let its crisp sea taste wash away the visions still floating around her head. She gazed out into the moonlit night and her eyes were drawn inexorably to the ocean. She watched the pale light of the moon gleam and shimmer off the smooth placid waters. It was beautiful.

She sighed to herself. How she longed to return to the waves, to feel the spray of the sea on her again. To journey as she had done in her dreams far beyond these shores to places unknown. In the far off distance she heard the screech of a dragon, no doubt one of the wild beasts out on a midnight hunt. It brought her mind back to the strange three headed creature she had ridden upon in her dream.

It had liberated from her fealty to the ground, escorted across countless leagues to the edge of the world, given her the chance to actually touch the soil of the far distant summer lands, the ones of which she had fancied in her imagination for so long. A kind of madness suddenly seized at her. A dangerous and altogether thoughtless idea. Mayhaps a living dragon could do the same for her as well.

She gazed down at the dragon pens, at the hulking mass of Dreamfyre lazing in silent slumber beside it in the courtyard. She despaired of the idea at once. Only a Targayren could bond to a dragon. Only the blood of old Valyria would serve. She was not so. She could no more steal a dragon then she could fly out this window now by herself. She turned her gaze upwards, towards the moon. It was luminescent this evening, shining like a pearl suspended upon the star dappled sky. As she looked upon it, a shadow crossed across its face. The silhouette of a dragon was cast in its opalescent light. For but a brief moment, Elissa fancied it almost looked like a newborn hatchling, bursting its way forth from its egg.

Egg. The fleeting word caught her attention. But why? Something about eggs? Why would the idea of such innocuous thing have suddenly seized itself upon- A thought struck her. She looked down at the dragon pens. Within she had seen them. Eggs. Dragon eggs. Loads of them. All sitting dormant, awaiting a Targeyrean to awaken them.

Dark imaginings took her mind. Could she really be so bold? The consequences would be severe, fatal even if she was careless. But the temptation was strong, overpowering even. Something strange and nascent prodded at the back of mind, cajoling her towards recklessness. She could not ride on dragon back, nor would any living dragon ever be able to fly her across the sea, but that did not mean they still couldn’t help her at all.

She wouldn’t need many. Three would do. Three would serve her well enough. They would be enough to buy her passage. With just three eggs, Elissa Farman could at last purchase the deepest desire of her heart. A journey into the sunset sea. To steal away from the world she knew, and venture forth at last unto that eternally far distant sunset.

**Author's Note:**

> I struggled over this for a good long time. There are parts I really like, and parts I'm not overly keen on. But it is done nonetheless. Some aspects are really well written, other not so much. But that's all part of the development process. I have to write to get better at making it something I enjoy throughout. But I hope you enjoyed it! It's been an idea swimming around my head ever since I read Fire and Blood, and I'm glad to finally have it committed down here.


End file.
